


oh, simple thing (breathing such harsh air)

by Possiblyenjoyable



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Other, Trans, Trans Danny, Trans Male Character, danny is my small son, he is so small, just platonic stuff, there aren't any romantic subplots in this really, transgender danny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 19:06:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4071226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Possiblyenjoyable/pseuds/Possiblyenjoyable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny is only fourteen with the weight of the world on his shoulders. It would be great if he didn't have a literal weight on his chest.</p>
<p>Or, the one where Danny is trans and that's a bigger secret than the fact that he's half ghost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	oh, simple thing (breathing such harsh air)

**Author's Note:**

> I am a trans male. Please don't tell me that any of Danny's feelings towards his gender identity are invalid because I am basing the way he deals with his gender identity the way I deal with my own.

Breathing easy is hard for Danny. It's one of the most stupidly hard things he's ever had to do and he hates it. He's only fourteen, he shouldn't be dealing with these kinds of things. Fighting ghosts, schoolwork, and his own damn body is just too fucking much. How is he supposed to breathe easy when he has the weight of the world on his shoulders and a literal weight on his chest?

Ghosts don't care about any of that. Okay, there are a couple who are actually slightly understanding, but most of them don't care that Danny is only fourteen and trying so hard not to rip his skin apart every night as he undresses and takes his binder off so he can be a little less restricted as he sits down to study. None of the ghosts even know until Danny mentions something about it. 

Skulker isn't one of the few who care. He just wants Danny's head mounted on his wall. And right now, Danny is very adamant about that not happening. He's so incredibly tired and all he wants to do is go home and go to sleep, but if he flees, Skulker will simply follow him. And the best part about all of this? He's only here because he decided to play a little prank on Vlad, but his plans went awry and Vlad caught him. Danny had fled into the ghost zone through Vlad's portal, but the old man followed him. So now, Danny's got two enemies to worry about. Vlad couldn't care less about what Danny has to deal with in his personal life either. But Danny doesn't expect either of them to care. He just wishes he could catch a break right now.

"Can't you guys cut me some slack and leave me alone for once?" Danny asks as he dodges a net from one of Skulker's guns. 

"Why should we?" Vlad scoffs. "You broke into my home just to play a silly prank on me. It was very inconveniencing, Daniel, and I'd greatly appreciate it if you wouldn't be so hypocritical."

"Alright, fair enough," Danny shrugs. He aims a fist at Vlad, prepared to shoot any number of ghost rays at him, but before he has the chance, he's yanking his arm back against his body and pressing his hand to the rather deep wound on his bicep. He can't keep track of both Skulker and Vlad at the same time, and Skulker seems to know that. In the moment that Danny had taken to try and shoot Vlad, Skulker had flung a blade at him. Thank goodness his aim was ridiculously off, or Danny would have been toast. 

"Seriously?" Danny mutters under his breath, spinning around to charge at Skulker. The punches he throws hit open air with every swing that Skulker dodges. In a moment of fatigue, Danny lets his guard down and Skulker manages to land a hit on his nose. Danny feels his nose crack under the impact and he sees stars for a few seconds. When he comes back to, he's panting and trying to wipe the blood from his nose and mouth. 

"Oh, young ghost child," Skulker coos condescendingly, "are you tired? You look a little fatigued. Maybe you should sleep!" 

Danny sees Skulker's arm pointed in his direction. He sees the small gun-like object protrude from the armor. He sees the bright green substance spew from it and towards his head. 

He doesn't move quick enough.

The substance hits his chest rather than his head as he attempts to dodge the blast. When he looks down, most of the top half of his suit is dissolved, right up to the neck. It burns at his neck and oh god his binder is visible and the substance is about to eat away at that material as well. He frantically wipes at his neck to stop the burning and at his chest to keep his binder from melting away. What he wipes away with his hands dissolves the material of his gloves, but that's better than melting his binder off.

"What the hell?"

Danny snaps back to attention at the sound of Skulker's voice, looking up and noticing the baffled expression on the hunter's face. His eyes seem to be focused on Danny's chest. 

My binder.

The half-binder that Danny wears is quite clearly not an undershirt. Anyone who sees it would easily be able to tell that it's strapping breasts down. 

And Skulker and Vlad are looking right at it. 

Danny almost vomits right on the spot. He crosses his arms over his chest, his hands gripping his shoulders as he turns away from them and chokes back the sudden onslaught of tears. He can feel his heart pounding in his ears and he doesn't know what to do, doesn't know how to cover up. He can't make his body move. What if Skulker says something about it? What if Skulker tells the whole Ghost Zone that Danny doesn't have a male body? what if Vlad tells the whole world that Danny isn't actually a biological boy? He feels bile rise in his throat at the thought and his blood is pumping through his ears.

He doesn't hear Vlad's fist connect with Skulker's face. He doesn't hear Vlad threaten to kill him if he touches Danny right now. He doesn't even notice Vlad float up behind him until he feels something on his shoulders. He jumps at the feeling, looking down at his right shoulder to see a gloved hand holding a white cape down. 

Vlad's cape hangs across his shoulders, the old man's hands resting there as well. Danny blinks in confusion, looking up to see Vlad glaring back at Skulker. 

"Come, Daniel," Vlad says, his words choppy. "We should leave. You'll have time to fight him another day."

Danny only sniffles and looks back down, more confused right now than anything else. He allows Vlad to lead him out of the Ghost Zone by his shoulders as he pulls the cape to a close over his chest. 

The sensation of entering or exiting the portal that connects the Ghost Zone and the living world is always a strange one. It makes Danny's whole body feel like static. Among all the other physical effects of his anxiety, it overwhelms him to the point that he almost blacks out. He sees spots for a few moments before his vision clears up again and he holds his stomach, bending over because he feels like he might vomit. 

"If you're going to do that, I'd much rather you do it in a sink or a toilet," Vlad says. After Danny stands upright again (without puking, thankfully), Vlad pulls both of them up through the ceiling to the first floor of his mansion. 

"Sit down," Vlad orders, gesturing to one of the chairs off to the right. The room appears to be a den of some sort, a fireplace in front of them with an overly large flat screen television. Two big armchairs sit in front of the fireplace, a table between them.

Danny looks over to the chairs, back to Vlad, and back to the chairs with a furrowed brow. He nods silently before taking slow steps over to one of the chairs, sitting down and wrapping the cape tighter around his shoulders. God, what a mess. This was never supposed to happen and Danny wishes he could go back into the Ghost Zone to get Clockwork to reverse time so Danny can make sure this doesn't happen. He liked it when Vlad thought he was a cisgender boy. His parents know, of course, and so do Sam and Tucker. Everyone at school thinks he's a cis boy. What if Vlad reveals to the whole world that he's not? Not Danny Phantom, but Danny Fenton. The bullying at school would probably just get worse. God, he'll have to switch schools or something. Not that that would help much, but still. It would be his best bet.

"Here's a shirt for you to wear home," Vlad's voice startles him out of his panicked thoughts. A shirt is tossed his way, landing on the floor at his feet. When he looks up, he sees that Vlad has changed back into his human form.

Danny finds himself glaring up at the man, his hands gripping the cape tightly. "What's the deal, huh?" He snaps. "Aren't you gonna, I dunno, try to kill me? Maim me? Anything?" 

Vlad rolls his eyes. "You know me much better than that, Daniel. I may try to kill you every now and then, but I'm still a gentleman." 

Danny is stunned into silence by the fact that, despite being alone in a place where Vlad could literally say anything and Danny would have no proof that he actually said it, Vlad still called him by his chosen name. Danny has never actually known where Vlad stands on issues like gender identity and sexuality. He would have assumed that Vlad didn't particularly approve of it considering his age, but apparently he's been assuming incorrectly all this time. 

"You're, um," Danny pauses, chewing on the inside of his cheek, "not gonna tell anyone else about this, right?"

"My boy," Vlad says with a nod, "I give you my word." 

Danny leans down and picks up the shirt, dropping the cape. Vlad turns around and waits for Danny to put the shirt on. It's a simple white T-shirt, which Danny is thankful for since his binder is white as well. 

"I got a little blood on your cape," Danny says once the shirt is on. He holds out the cape to Vlad.

Vlad sighs. "Oh, that's alright. Just have someone clean up that wound for you once you get home."

Danny pauses, lifting his thumb to his mouth and chewing on his nail. "So, like, you're really not going to try to pull anything?"

"Like I said, I'm a gentleman," Vlad smirks. "Now, I'd suggest you get out of here before I change my mind and decide to strangle you with my cape instead." 

Danny doesn't even hesitate.

\----

"Danny? You in here?"

"Yeah, come in," Danny rolls over in bed to face the door to his room, his blankets pulled up to his chin and his legs curled up to his chest. Sam and Tucker enter the room, worry and concern for their best friend etched into their faces. "Thanks for coming over."

"No problem, dude," Tucker says, taking a seat on the end of Danny's bed. Sam sits cross-legged on the floor next to Danny's head. "You wanna talk about it?"

Danny's grateful for his friends. He's so damn grateful to have them. They've never tried to get him to talk about anything he didn't want to, they've never made him feel like his dysphoria is invalid, they've never made him think he's wrong about his gender and they've always helped him through times like this. 

Danny sits up, pushing the covers off of him. He's taken his binder off for the time being; he learned the hard way that you're not supposed to have it on for more than eight hours at a time. He takes it off when he's in bed or doing homework, or sometimes when he's lounging around watching TV. There are times when he absolutely loathes the idea of taking it off (those times take up the majority), but there are other times when he doesn't really mind it and almost forgets that he has breasts where they shouldn't be. He wishes he could be one of those transgender people who don't feel dysphoric but still feel a sense of euphoria when someone uses their correct pronouns and name. That would make his life a million times easier.

"Vlad found out," Danny says bluntly. 

Sam and Tucker both blink at him with wide, confused eyes. "About what?" Sam asks.

"About me being trans," Danny says. he puts his face in his hands. "Skulker shot something at me that made the front of my suit dissolve and he and Vlad saw my binder." 

"Oh, god, Danny," Sam says quietly. She reaches up and sets her hand on Danny's wrist in a gesture of comfort. "What did he do? Did he hurt you or anything?"

"'Cause if he did, we'll have to kill him," Tucker nods.

"Did he do that to you?" Sam points at the gauze around Danny's arm. He only put on one layer of it, so the blood soaked through a bit.

Danny shakes his head. "No, Skulker did that. And broke my nose, but I set it back. It was before the binder thing, though. Don't worry."

"You didn't even dress your arm right," Sam says. "Did you clean it out?"

"Um, no," Danny admits, offering an embarrassed smile. 

Sam sighs in frustration. "Hold on, be right back." She stands up and leaves the room, and when she comes back, she's got a damp rag and disinfectant spray and clean gauze.

"God, Danny, you've got way too many scars," Sam says. Danny follows her instructions to sit on the edge of the bed so she can take the bloody gauze off his arm. "Holy crap, man, Skulker really got you." She presses the rag to the wound, cleaning the dried blood off his skin. Danny zones out for a few moments, but when he hears Sam give a sharp inhale, he snaps back to attention only to find her staring at his neck with a furrowed brow. "What is that?"

Danny lifts a hand to his neck, fingertips grazing over rough skin. it stings when he touches it. "oh," Danny remembers, "It's from the stuff Skulker shot at me. It burned my neck a little, I guess." He gives a small shrug, then smiles. "Nothing I can't handle."

"Dude," Tucker says, "Sam's right. You got way too many scars. You shouldn't be getting hurt this much."

"It's not like I can help it," Danny rolls his eyes. "I wish I didn't get hurt this much but I do. There's nothing I can do about it."

Tucker and Sam respond with silence. Tucker scoots a little closer to Danny, and Sam continues to work on Danny's injuries. The disinfectant spray burns like hell on both of the wounds, especially the one on his neck. Sam dresses the gash on his arm in clean gauze and then sets the supplies off to the side before sitting back down on the floor in front of Danny. 

"So what'd Vlad do?" Tucker asks. Danny sits back against his pillow again, pulling his knees up to his chest. 

"Actually," Danny runs a hand through his hair, "he helped me."

His friends blink. 

"I'm sorry, what?" Tucker looks at Danny like he just told him he was eloping to Canada with Dash. "He helped you?" 

"No offense, Danny, but that's a little more than hard to believe." Sam says.

"Trust me, I know," Danny says. "But, like... he knocked Skulker out and put his cape over me so I had something to cover myself with. And guys, he looked pissed. And he was pissed at Skulker. The whole time he was leading me out of the Ghost Zone, he was just sort of glaring back at Skulker."

"That's... weird," Sam says. She pulls on a lock of her hair in thought. "Did he try to do anything to you after that?"

"Nope. He gave me a shirt to fly home in and told me to get someone to take care of my arm." Danny shakes his head. "And he never once stopped using my chosen name. He even said 'my boy' just like he always does. There wasn't anyone else around for him to fake all that."

"Maybe he draws the line at that kind of thing," Tucker suggests. "Like, maybe he approves of trying to murder people when they piss him off, but he draws the line at stuff like sexual harassment. He might have thought Skulker was trying to pull something like that."

"Or maybe he just gets it," Sam says. "Who knows? Maybe he had a friend who was trans or non-binary and what Skulker did struck a low blow for him. It might have just been protective instincts kicking in to protect you from being uncomfortable."

"He's tried to kill me on several occasions, Sam," Danny deadpans.

"I know," Sam nods. "But I was watching this thing one time on people who were in prison for murder, and when they were asked about what they thought of rapists, I'm pretty sure all of them said that they absolutely despised rapists and molesters. That could be the case with Vlad, but instead of rape or molestation, he hates homophobes or transphobes and just wants to protect anyone who deals with that kind of thing. He probably thought that Skulker would make some sort of nasty comment." 

"So he can still be a froot loop, but also have morals," Danny chuckles. 

"Basically," Sam nods. 

Danny sighs, setting his chin on his knees and pressing his lips together. "That whole thing was really scary," he says, his voice cracking. "I thought something would happen. Something bad."

Tucker moves to one side of Danny, throwing an arm around his shoulders and squeezing him. When Danny starts to cry, Sam moves up to the other side of him, tossing her own arm around his shoulders as well. Danny buries his face in his knees, his sobs the only sound in the room. Sam and Tucker have known Danny long enough to understand that he just needs to cry and he doesn't want them to say anything. 

Breathing easy has always been hard for Danny. He knows that Sam and Tucker have a hard time with it too, since he's got so much baggage he dumps on them. But every once in a while, even when his throat is constricting and his head is pounding, it feels a little bit more simple.


End file.
